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Tag: help

Local help on your phone

PAX East is a gigantic sprawling video game conference held in Boston each year. The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center is over a half million square feet. At PAX, you will occupy one of those square feet. Despite the best efforts of maps, both physical and online, it can be daunting to know where you are, where you want to go and how to get there. And because the maps were printed weeks ago, it can all be a bit out of date. So if you find your self a few wrong turns deep and down a deserted hallway, who do you turn to? The local web.

Simply drop a post on /lost.at.pax about your prediciment and someone will quickly point you in the right direction. PAX has people monitoring that slash officially, but there are also lots of people checking it out during their down time who can lend a hand as well. Where is the nearest bathroom that has a baby change table? A PAX volunteer might direct you to the closest but another momma attendee will direct you to closest one that works because she just visited the one the volunteer suggested and the latch is broken.

At a conference like this people are always looking to help others, but surprisingly it can be hard to find the person who needs help. But at /lost.at.pax those needing help can find those willing to give it and more attendees can have an awesome experience. /lost.at.pax isn’t the first line of defense for those in need as the PAX officials have done a good job at providing adequate resources. But it’s an effective last line of defense in which crowdsourced volunteers instill a sense of togetherness in all attendees and make sure no one goes home frustrated and overwhelmed.

Note: PAX is not officially affiliated with the local web. The above is just an example of what could happen when the local web launches at PAX East in April.

We are building the local web and sharing a new way to use it each day.

The decentralized 21st century lost-and-found that we deserve

You are attending the PAX East conference and stop to talk to a YouTuber who you are a fan of. You put your backpack down, grab a shirt out of it and get him to sign it. After the convo you are elated, having just found and talked to one your idols. This elation turns to hunger and you go look for a place to get something to eat. As you are standing in line for food, admiring the signed shirt you just got, it hits you.

Fuck.

Your backpack. It’s back in the middle of a convention hall that’s a 10 minute walk away. Or at least it was. It’s gone now. Left backpacks just don’t stay left for long. What are your options? Suck it up and try not to let it ruin your day, even though it will? Or try to find someone who knows where the “lost and found” is, if such a thing exists, and hope that someone saw your backpack and took 20 minutes out of their day to find this lost and found and put your backpack there too.

There is a third option. Get your phone out and check localweb.is/lost.and.found. There people who find lost items immediately take a photo of it and post it, then take the item with them, so nobody else takes it. You quickly see that your backpack is one of the most recent posts and you reply to the post to retrieve it. He responds with a question about what is inside, just to verify, and you agree to meet up at a spot that is only a few minutes from both of you.

Crisis averted.

The centralized concept of a lost-and-found is some 20th century technology that doesn’t fit how we live our lives today. If there is considerable friction to returning a lost item, people won’t want to do it and the item will remain where it is until it’s stolen. But thanks to the local web, returning an item is as simple as taking a photo of it, so the good Samaritans, who always outnumber the thieves, usually will get the first shot.

The traditional lost-and-found hasn’t been functional since grade school. Many places – bars, restaurants, clubs – just don’t keep that stuff around for long and other places like parks, play grounds, and other outdoor spaces don’t have a central lost-and-found at all. But with the local web, everyone becomes their own receptacle for lost goods and you can move to meet the owner as well.

Lost items are usually discovered as lost by their owners within minutes so time matters. When the digital lost-and-found is accessed on mobile phones and /lost.and.found can be dialed down to a few hundred feet, it allows both the owner and finder to connect much sooner. If the finder collects the item, then waits until they get home to post it to Craigslist, the owner might be 45 minutes of rush hour traffic away, increasing the hassle all around.

The local web is enabling people to solve their own problems in their own way using the tools we already have in our hands. It doesn’t matter if you have lost something or you are lost yourself, the local web is your connection to those who can help.

Note: PAX is not officially affiliated with the local web. The above is just an example of what could happen when the local web launches at PAX East in April.

We are building the local web and sharing a new way to use it each day.

Crowd sourcing in-store help

Unfortunately the latest trend in customer service is to call out the lousy service you’ve received on the latest, most popular social media platform, and if you make a big enough stink (or you’re a big enough deal), your issues might be dealt with.

But this isn’t going to help when what you really need is to know which toggle bolts are rated for drywall…and there just isn’t anyone with a orange apron to be found.

That’s when you can turn to localweb.is/help-in-homedepot and post your question. Helpful contractors within 100 yards can answer your question. There might even be another customer in the store at that very moment who can walk over to your aisle to help you compare bolts.

Home Depot is a pretty smart company, so they even have someone monitoring the /help-in-homedepot to give their official response as well. Finding the right toggle bolt in Home Depot is a small local problem that doesn’t warrant any social media outrage.

And if for some reason you don’t get the service you expect, a little venting on /help-in-homedepot is actually productive. You are not looking to grab the eyes of Home Depot corporate, just the local manager which can be done quite easily since enough griping and comments will drive /help-in-homedepot to the top of the index at localweb.is where the complaints will be most visible. Think of it as a real-time Yelp review.

Too often consumers have to take customer service into their own hands. Those without Twitter followers or a social media presence can be left out. With the local web and /help-in-homedepot, they can get their local problems solved… by other locals.

We are building the local web and sharing a new way to use it each day.

Answers to life’s most frustrating questions

Sometimes people don’t make sense. And sometimes those people are boys and the questions you have about them are difficult to answer.

It helps to have people nearby who can empathize and maybe even offer advice. That’s what /whydoboys is for. Think of it as a hashtag / trending topic but for your block, neighborhood or city. Hung out with someone you like but not sure how long you should wait to text? Post a note into /whydoboys to ask. Want a bit of advice on talking about what feels comfortable when it comes to making out? There are probably people nearby who’d be happy to talk through it.

It’s that space in between BFFs and someone a block or two over that you’ve never met.

We are building the local web and sharing a new way to use it each day.

Help others and help yourself

Grief is a hard emotion to process. It’s even harder to process alone. Counseling and other resources can be incredibly helpful, but it’s hard to stay connected to those support structures around the clock.

Our phones allow us to express our emotions online with less hesitation but sometimes we don’t want our friend lists or followers to see us in our toughest moments. There are also anonymous apps, but they are rarely productive places for dealing with an emotional subject and often quickly shift into negative mode.

Enter /grief-support. Patrons can post their questions, and help others going through periods of grief. The people posting are in the local area and can offer legitimate recommendations for professional help and support groups.

Like other apps, a poster can be anonymous or use their real name, but group moderation ensures that trolls won’t even be bothered to interfere.

We are all going through something and it helps to know that we are not alone. The World Wide Web offers us “someone somewhere” but it’s more powerful to know that “someone right here” is going through the same thing.

We are building the local web and sharing a new way to use it each day.